


Bottoms Up

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Community: comment_fic, F/M, Het, People always find out, Rare Pair, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 04:52:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7744063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joe gets a surprising phone call. Everyone else just gets a surprise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bottoms Up

**Author's Note:**

> I was looking at this prompt since it went up but couldn't figure what to do with it. Then when news broke that they'd cast Caitlin's mother, I found myself thinking, since they already had Henry Allen and Tina McGee making eyes at one another, I hope they didn't do that with Joe and Caitlin's mom... Which lead me to this!
> 
>  
> 
> Theme : rare pair  
> Prompt: author's choice, author's choice, it's not that they're hiding; it's that no one ever thought to ask  
> http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/741486.html?thread=98037614#t98037614

"Who's up for a drink?"

The words have barely left Cisco's mouth when he sees Joe entering the cortex, looking like the answer to the question he's just asked. Any celebratory mood that had been present, Team Flash having once more done the impossible and vanquished the latest meta human threat and saving the city, vanishes in a second as they all register the look on his face and Cisco swallows hard as he sees Iris step towards Joe. "Dad?" she says, face twisting in concern. "What's wrong?" 

Joe lets out a heavy breath and Cisco's hands tighten at his side. "I got a phone call," Joe begins, and Cisco steels himself further because no good conversation in the history of ever has started with that particular phrase. Joe's not looking at Iris though, or even at Barry. His gaze is firmly on Caitlin. "From your mother." 

Cisco blinks in surprise, glances at Barry and Iris who are, it must be said, looking a little bit surprised too, but, certainly in Iris's case, a little bit gleeful as well. Which Cisco understands - Joe's a total catch who refuses to be caught, for reasons past any of their understanding. The mountain coming to Muhammad, as it were, is a cause of, if not celebration, then at least interest. 

Except Caitlin doesn't look like she's in the mood to celebrate anything. Her face drains of colour and Cisco doesn't miss how she suddenly has a white knuckled grip on the edge of the console. "My mother?" Her voice is as frosty as Cisco has ever heard it, and coming from someone who's heard it from another Earth, as Killer Frost, that's hella frosty. "What did she want?" 

Joe loosens his tie like its a noose around his neck. From the tone of his voice, it might as well be. "To ask me to dinner tonight." 

Cisco chuckles, Iris claps her hands in undisguised delight and Barry just grins. "What did you say?" he asks, and Joe looks at the three of them like they're nuts. 

"No, obviously." He talks to them like they're nuts as well which Cisco thinks is a little rude, but whatever. Joe's apparently not used to being hit on, even if it probably happens more than he lets on. Cisco's certainly seen enough women checking him out at the precinct; Joe's always been completely oblivious, bless his heart. Joe's gaze then swings around to Caitlin then who is still pale, but this time with two pale blotches of red starting to form on her cheeks. "But I'm familiar with women with that particular strain of mitochondrial DNA; they don't tend to take no for an answer." 

That has Barry blinking and Cisco can't help himself from clapping his hands over his heart dramatically. "Oh, Joe, look at you with the science." 

For his troubles, Joe turns a dead-eyed stare on him. "I'm a cop, Cisco," he says flatly. "Believe it or not, I understand how DNA works." Cisco holds up his hands in surrender and Joe swings his gaze back to Caitlin. "So, what do we do?" 

Why he's asking that of Caitlin, of all people, baffles Cisco for a second. Then he figures that Caitlin and her mom have only just started talking again and he probably doesn't want to put her in the middle of anything. From his dealings with Carla Tannhauser, Cisco can vouch for the fact that she's a formidable woman at the best of times and Joe's not wrong about the mitochondrial DNA thing. 

Caitlin crosses her arms over her chest, draws herself up to her full height. "There's only one thing for it," she says, those two spots of colour burning brighter. "We tell her the truth." 

Cisco blinks, tilts his head in confusion. A quick look at Barry and Iris assures him he's not alone. Joe's still only got eyes for Caitlin though. He's frowning at her, says only "Yeah?" and there's a world of doubt in that one syllable. 

Shrugging, Caitlin tosses her hair. "She was going to find out sooner or later. Might as well be now." 

Now Cisco feels like he's definitely missed about five pages of the script. Joe still looks doubtful, but not confused. "Yeah? Because you two just started talking again, you show up with a cop twenty years older than you on your arm, I'm guessing that's not gonna go down so well." 

The "pfft" sound that leaves Caitlin's lips neatly covers the sound of three jaws dropping. "Like she's ever approved of anyone I ever dated," she says dismissively. "She hated Ronnie too."

Joe's eyebrows climb at that one. "She hated Ronnie?" 

Caitlin purses her lips, like she's tasted something bitter. "He used to joke he was an overpaid plumber; she took that literally." 

"So a plumber's not good enough for her little girl, but a cop is?" Joe sounds highly sceptical but a funny little smirk lights  Caitlin's face. 

"Well, since that cop was good enough for her, I fancy my chances." She reaches into her desk drawer, pulls out her purse. "Come on... no time like the present and all that." 

If Cisco's any judge of facial expressions, Joe finds fault with that plan but they all know Caitlin and they all know she's not taking no for an answer. He glances at Barry and Cisco and Iris and shrugs. "Like I said... mitochondrial DNA."

"Watch it." Caitlin's words are a growl, which is not as effective as a Caitlin growl usually is, but that's because she's grinning up at Joe like she used to grin up at Ronnie back in the day and Cisco feels like the world is tilting around him. It's an effect that's only multipled when Caitlin slips her hand into Joe's and they say their good nights before walking out the door hand in hand. 

Cisco watches them go, slack jawed, turns to Barry and Iris who look at least as stunned as he feels. 

"So..." Cisco breaks the silence. "About that drink..." 

"Oh yeah," Barry says, at the same time that Iris says, "Make mine a double." 

Cisco reaches into his own bottom drawer, pulls out a seldom used bottle of whiskey. "Bottoms up."

*

Joe's halfway down the corridor towards the elevator when he stops dead as something that was niggling him as they left the cortex comes into stark relief. His stop is so sudden and unexpected that Caitlin keeps walking, only stops when her arm is extended the whole way and to step any further would break their grip. She turns to him with a smile on her face. "What?" she says. "Are you scared of my mother?"

Any other time, Joe would give as good as he gets with the teasing. 

This is not any other time. 

"Did you tell Cisco?" he asks. "About us?" Caitlin frowns, shakes her head but she doesn't look overly concerned so he knows she hasn't made the leap he has. Which is natural - it's not every day she's distracted by her mother hitting on her boyfriend. He squeezes her hand as he continues, "Because I never told Barry and Iris."

The frown deepens, then clears as her eyes go wide. "Are you saying..."

"That we just outed ourselves to everyone?" He rubs his hand over his jaw. "Yeah, I think we just did."

Caitlin blinks, then blinks again. "But... they must have known. Mustn't they? I mean, I know they've never asked, but it's not like we were hiding it..." Her eyes darted from side to side, considering the possibilities. "Where do they think you are at night?"

It's a good question; Joe had just figured that they've never asked because they don't want to know the details of his sex life, any more than he relishes discussing it with them. Still, he knows people, knows these people. "Baby, I read faces for a living. Trust me, they hadn't a clue." 

"Oh." Caitlin bites her lip, looks down at the ground before looking up at him. "Oops?"

He can't help it; all he can do is laugh. He keeps it down, of course, because the last thing they want is everyone coming along to see what's so funny. But he does laugh and, after a second, so does Caitlin. She also steps into him, wraps her arm around his waist, while his goes around her shoulders, and he squeezes their interlaced fingers tightly together. 

"Come on," he says, "let's get out of here." 

Caitlin looks up at him, tilts her head and bats her eyelashes. "To see my mother?" 

Except looking at him like that, he knows that's pretty much the last thing on her mind, and when she presses her hips against his just so, it's last thing on his as well. 

"No," he tells her simply and she laughs as he leads her down the hall to the elevator where, in the privacy thereof, he proceeds to let her know exactly what he'd rather do. 

Turns out she's in complete agreement. 


End file.
